Two decades have brought little change for women in cardiology, according to a new study. Women account for only 20 percent of cardiologists who see adult patients, and are more likely than their male counterparts to face professional discrimination.

Patients who take antidepressants are not increasing their risk of arrhythmia, MI, stroke or transient ischemic attack, according to new study. Prior research had suggested a link between depression and negative cardiovascular outcomes.

Eighteen people have been selected for a Distinguished Award from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). The recipients will receive their awards on April 4 during the ACC’s annual scientific session in Chicago.

One health system is using coordinated teams to cut emergency room visits and improve medication management for heart failure patients. A new blog post details how Geisinger Health System built on its record of care integration and coordination to address emergency and inpatient care for heart failure patients.

To reduce medical errors, providers should look to the skies, one physician writes. Following a 1977 airline disaster, the industry developed a "culture of safety" that could be worth emulating, writes David Nash, M.D., founding dean of Jefferson College of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University.

Health & Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell recently announced that HHS is behind a major push to achieve interoperability of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). "Companies that provide 90 percent of EHRs used by U.S. hospitals, including Epic and athenahealth, have agreed to increase patient access, no information blocking, and adoption of federally recognized interoperability standards," reports Healthcare Dive. But will those goals improve patient care and EHR workflow?

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is petitioning the White House to recognize the need for a national patient identifier. "The petition asks that legislative language be removed that stops the Department of Health and Human Services from funding efforts to find a national patient ID solution," reports FierceHealthIT. "AHIMA also wants leaders in the government to work with the private sector and security experts on a path to a voluntary patient safety ID."

Federal appeals courts continue to side against faith-based health systems, which may soon be forced to contribute millions into underfunded employee pension plans. The issue of whether those pension plans are subject to federal protections involves major health systems including Dignity Health, Presence Health and Catholic Health Initiatives. It could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

A recent report by Frost & Sullivan predicts the Artificial Intelligence (AI) market in healthcare will reach $6 billion by 2021, up from just $600 million two years ago. With the shift to a value-based reimbursement model, hospitals and providers are looking for new ways to increase efficiencies and improve patient outcomes, according to Healthcare Dive. "Cognitive solutions such as IBM’s Watson system can assess huge amounts of patient data, provide guidance and decision support, and improve clinical workflow."

Baptist Health South Florida, Southern Ohio Medical Center, and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital are among the 100 best places to work, according to Fortune. Fortune's annual list of the 100 best places to work included 11 hospitals this year, with Baptist Health South Florida in the No. 1 spot among medical workplaces. The rankings take into account workplace culture, benefits offered, and career paths, among other considerations.

The trend toward connectivity within healthcare systems has a positive future, according to the 2016 HIMSS Connected Health Survey. More than 50 percent of hospitals surveyed reported using at least three connected technologies, and many plan to improve engagement and quality of care by implementing additional technologies.

A Harvard department of healthcare policy analysis "shows such wide variation in baseline spending levels from one ACO to the next that any future benchmarking efforts, including those performed within single given regions, must roll out parity measures only gradually—or pay the price in the form of participation falloffs," HealthExec asserts. That’s because transitioning to a common payment model using average regional fee-for-service spending as the basis for the benchmark for all ACOs in an area would probably discourage less efficient organizations—including those serving sicker-than-average populations—from continuing in ACO programs (especially in two-sided risk contracts) if the model were implemented within a few years of participation.

Upheaval in the healthcare industry may be keeping CEO turnover rate high. This is the third year in a row that the turnover rate has been 18 percent. "ACHE President and CEO Deborah Bowen blamed ongoing organizational consolidation, Baby Boomer retirements, internal transfers within healthcare systems and the emergence of new models of care for the high turnover rates," Fiercehealthcare.com reported.

By collecting outcomes data for submission to the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, cardiac surgery providers are committing to improving the quality of care that their patients receive. High-achieving providers use the data they collect for this national registry to drive performance improvements on an ongoing basis.

And what a lot of data there is to collect! From risk factors to discharge medications to readmission rates and more, providers are charged with keeping track of it all. They need tools that are up to the task.

LUMEDX's HealthView STS Adult Dashboard enables cardiac surgery suites to set performance objectives and track metrics against objectives, identify outliers and trends, and work to improve patient care and business outcomes—all in one place. The dashboard allows for efficient, automated monitoring of performance in near-real time, so providers can see, understand, and act on their data.

A proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would penalize hospitals that perform an index coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and then have an unexpected 30-day readmission, even if the patient was discharged from a different hospital. "The proposed CABG 30-day readmission measure includes Medicare beneficiaries who are 65 years old or older who at the time of the index admission had been enrolled in a Medicare fee-for-service program for at least 12 months," Cardiovascular Business reports. "CMS intends to add CABG to its readmissions reduction program in 2017."

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) continues to have public support, with 36 percent of those surveyed saying it should be expanded, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. That's the position advocated by presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nearly a quarter of respondents would like to see a single government plan, as advocated by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, while 16 percent would repeal the ACA and not replace it. Repealing the act and replacing it with a Republican alternative was favored by 13% of respondents.

"Menu-izing the costs of care doesn’t turn the average American into a skilled healthcare shopper, but don’t blame the consumer," says Health Exec. "While some 43 percent of U.S. healthcare spending does indeed go into 'shoppable,' non-emergent care—everything from flu shots and blood tests to colonoscopies and electively timed surgeries—only around 7 percent of out-of-pocket spending goes to such services. The result, according to a new analysis from the Health Care Cost Institute, is that the healthcare system as a whole wrings little cost benefit out of the push for price transparency."

Drinking alcohol is associated with higher cardiovascular risk immediately after consumption, according to systematic review and meta-analysis. "After 24 hours, there was a lower risk for moderate drinkers," Cardiovascular Business reports. "But the risk increased in heavy drinkers for the following day and week."

Consolidation is a trend expected to continue in the healthcare industry, according to Fierce Healthcare. The trend, with increased leverage and revenues, has led to the creation of super-regional system in several large markets. "In Chicago, consolidation reached a crescendo in 2014 when fully integrated health system Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Winfield, Illinois' Cadence Health finalized a merger, with Northwestern expanding to include four hospitals under the deal," reported Becker's Hospital Review. Since then, Northwestern has expanded its reach, finalizing a deal with KishHealth in Dekalb, Illinois. The system now boasts six hospitals and more than 4,000 workers.

The Obama administration has announced an agreement to increase interoperability by top U.S. health information technology developers and many of their larger customers. Signing on to the pledge--which requires signees to ease patient access to electronic health records--were Allscripts, Athenahealth, and Cerner Corp., among others. About 90 percent of U.S. hospitals use at least one of the vendors who signed on.

Truven Health Analytics has released its list of the 100 top hospitals in the United States. In researching the hospitals, Truven discovered a trend toward reduced expense per patient among the majority of top-performing hospitals. This year's trend appeared for the first time in the awards' 23-year history.

Hospitals that closely followed recommended care protocols after in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) had the highest survival rates. That's the conclusion of a new study published in JAMA Cardiology, which found that more than 24,000 lives could be saved annually if all hospitals operated at the level of the highest-scoring provider.

Payers and hospitals must overcome their differences to reduce readmissions, according to a special report by FierceHealthcare.com. "As providers increasingly move toward value-based care models, they must work with their counterparts in the payer sector to coordinate care and prevent readmissions," the report says. "But the transition is proving bumpy in some cases due in part to the historic mistrust between payers and providers."

Hospital readmission rates are not an outcome, but a measure of utilization, says one Harvard School of Public Health professor. He pointed to new federal research demonstrating that hospitals don't use observation status as a way to create the appearance of decreased readmissions, which had been a concern prior to the research. Readmission rates can decline for a number of reasons, including difficulty in being readmitted or better hospital-to-patient communication, he says.